CANADIAN High Commissioner Mr. David Devine has said that Canada will continue to invest heavily in Guyana by harvesting opportunities such as a blossoming natural resource sector and meeting security challenges. Addressing a gathering at the launch of the publication “Guyana Invest” last Thursday at Duke Lodge in Kingston, Georgetown, Mr. Devine noted that the billions of dollars that Canada has invested in Guyana exemplifies what he called a “successful investment partnership”.

He stressed that the Canadian High Commission is not interested only in the investment of Canadian companies, but in the overall investment climate in Guyana.
“If the investment climate is not right, then no one – Guyanese or Canadian – benefits in a long term, sustainable way,” he remarked.

Devine also said that the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) supports in the Caribbean region several initiatives that are aimed at fostering investment and improving the business climate. These initiatives, he said, target the main prerequisites for spurring investments, while also helping markets to function well.

“Stimulating the growth of the local private sector will create more and better jobs that foster sustainable livelihoods for all Guyanese,” he said.

He noted that while Guyana’s economy is steadily growing and there are many persons and companies being impressed by Guyana’s potential for investment, there are some who believe that the risks in investing are too high. He said investment is, by nature, a risky business, but there are added unnecessary risks which come with a lack of public security.
“I know that the local and foreign business (communities are) well aware of this as an insecure environment which affects all of us,” he said.

He advised that, as investments contribute to economic growth, policies that foster a more secure and stable economic environment should be created, in order to stimulate further investment. “Protocols must be in place to (prevent) criminals from cheating the system and creating losses for the honest and hardworking private sector,” he asserted.

He emphasised that Guyana faces a number of security challenges, which can only be addressed with greater examination, coordination and cooperation, along with the resolve to change, progress and move forward.

Devine said it is important that, with the input of countries with investments in Guyana, Government and the local private sector organizations — such as the Private Sector Commission (PSC) and the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) — tackle ways to improve the country’s investment climate from all relevant angles, including security and good governance.